Originally Posted by
duster
You never hear me say i dont like linux.
.. i said its just not a desktop operating system... and you know you lieing bout you know people who uses it and they are not techies.
i think linux's eventual strong point will not be its 'ease of use'...as that can never replace the familiarity of windows or the 'pop culture cool' of mac...but rather its stability and versatility.
of course simplicity wont hurt it either.
that branches right into my next point...i built a resource center/computer lab sometime last year in manchester that was sponsored by an organization i'm a part of...6 computers...it needed to be built in a client/server type layout for the users.
so of course i look to windows server...and was frightened as to how expensive it was...worse when you add in all the licenses and what not...and all these people were going to be doing was typing documents and using the net.
so i researched...and i found out about Ubuntu Terminal Server, which nullified the software cost, allowed the hardware cost to come down quite a bit as the systems could be diskless, which allowed a further 6 systems-really old machines that were donated- to join up for no extra cost, and so on...and the thing was ridiculously easy to set up.
i proposed it to the organization, and they were impressed...and gave it the green light. went, set it up and got it running easily, had the accounts fool proof so that users couldnt do anything but go into Firefox, Open Office..and print.
but guess what...the administrator....being a real clown of a windows fanboy....decided to take it upon himself to format the server (with all the profiles and so on on it) and drop on a bootleg version of 2003 server on it...and proceeded to try to replicate it in a more 'familiar' environment....the end result? the whole lab was down for 2 weeks...and when it was up again...only 9 users were able to connect for some odd reason...random bsod's.....virus reach the system thru IE(admin loved the pr0n sites)...the works.
of course the regular users of the center complained..saying they "wanted the other ting from before"...and i went down to mandeville...booted up the raided drive with the ubuntu install....and went on my merry way..everyone was happy...
so yeah...there is my epistle about non techie users and linux....they might not even know what they were using...or probably thought it was an ugly windows...but they used...and liked it.
>>Insert something witty here<<